Posted inJudging the Judges

Notes on a Talk by Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad

On 6 November 2008, the former Malaysian Chief Justice, Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad, gave a talk titled ‘Harmonization of Common Law and Shari’ah in Malaysia: A Practical Approach’ at Harvard University in honour of Abd Al-Razzaq Al-Sanhuri, a highly respected Egyptian scholar and jurist. These were some of my notes and thoughts upon reading the speech. All Quranic translation are taken from the translation rendered Abdullah Yusuf Ali with his commentary; Published by Amana Corporation. Finally, though I make general references to Muslims and non-Muslims, I appreciate the hybrid nature of one’s personality and affiliations as posited by Edward Said, and my doing so is merely to facilitate directness of expression where thoughts of the interaction between the two social constructs are concerned.